Shopping Trouble

I decided to head into Silver Lake today because I was running dangerously low on clothing. I hadn't been to Silver Lake since before I changed and during that first year I'd torn up a lot of clothes by reckless phasing. So, I decided to go shopping and Una begged me to let her come with me. She wanted to see the 'big city' for the frist time.

I ran us both here, since neither of us had a car, and Una thought it was hilarious. We actually got here faster than we would have if we'd taken a car. I didn't slow down until we reached the outskirts of Silver Lake, then I sat her down and we walked into the city together. It was very faint at first, the foul smell that made my nose twitch. If I'd been in my wolf form, I would have know what it was right away; but my human nose was slightly less sensitive, so it took longer for it to sink in.

We'd stopped to get something to eat first since I was hungry from running. As we came out of the small cafe, the smell suddenly hit my nose so hard it burned and made me feel sick. I wrinkled my nose and then blinked as I realized what the scent was. I snarled and whipped around, grabbing Una up into my arms and running down a side alleyway. I could smell the wretched stinch coming closer and I put Una behind me protectively and backed against the wall so that my body not only shielded her tiny one, but hid her from view too.

I growled from deep inside my chest and didn't bother stripping out of my clothes. As the fire ran down my spine, there was the sound of my clothes ripping apart as I phased into my wolf form. I was still large enough to block Una from view and I realized that was a good thing as three guys came around the corner into the alleyway. I used my large tail to smoosh Una further against the wall to make sure her curiosity didn't get the better of her.

Blake, Bri, and I were in town today because Blake wanted to buy Ray a present and needed Bri's help picking the perfect piece of jewelry. While Blake kept Bri busy at one display counter, I bought her a necklace as a surprise. I'd practically shouted my plans to Blake in my head so he would know to keep her attention off me while I bought it. After he'd found Ray's present and we left the shop, I surprised Bri by placing the necklace around her neck so fast she didn't have time to complain. Blake had snickered and assured me that even though Bri practically had a heart attack over the expensive present, she really loved it.

We ran into Gavin not long after coming out of the store and were standing there talking to him when the wind suddenly shifted direction. I caught a strange scent I'd never smelled before, which caused my nose to wrinkle in disgust. I stopped breathing for a moment just because it was so foul. It was like the worst wet, sweaty dog smell imaginable or something and yet there was something about it that wasn't quite dog either. What surprised me most was the strange reaction I instictively had to the smell.

It was as if every fiber of my being was screaming a warning. Whatever this scent was coming from, it was a danger. I had an overwhelming desire to track it down and kill it before it could harm anyone. My protectiveness was only made worse by the fact that Bri was with us.

"Stay here" I told her

I began to follow the scent down the street. I knew Blake and Gavin were automatically following me and I growled in frustration when I could tell by the thudding of her heart that Bri was following us too.

"Fine, but stay behind us" I grumbled at her over my shoulder

I didn't know what this creature was. I'd never known there was anything out there that could be a threat to vampires..that could cause this sort of reaction in me. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I rounded the corner into an alleyway and saw a giant wolf snarling and growling at us, I stopped a few feet away and blinked.

"What the hell is that thing?!" I asked in shock and then pulled a face because the smell was so much stronger "Ugh, it stinks!"

I rose an eyebrow when the wolf, which stood so high it's head was level with mine, curled its lips back over its teeth and snapped at me like it had understood me. What I heard next actually made me jump in surprise. A slightly muffled female voice snapped at me from somewhere behind the massive beast. I didn't want to, but I took a deeper breath so I could smell what else was here. The stench of the beast burned my throat with its putridness, but I also caught the scent of a human.

"It's...protecting a human??" I blinked and looked at Blake to confirm my suspicion

I didn't have to though, I saw a female stick her head out from behind the wolf. She looked terrified..not of the beast, but of us.

I'd never been out of Raventree Hollow before, so when Jonas decided he needed to go to Silver Lake I begged him to take me with him. He'd carried me at a blinding speed all the way here and I'd found it exhilarating, laughing nearly the whole way. We ate at a small cafe since Jonas was starving, though that was nothing new, and headed out to begin our shopping.

I'd been looking forward to getting to explore the large town and all its shops; but before I got the chance, Jonas had suddenly growled and grabbed me up.

"What is it?" I squeaked in concern as he ran into an alleyway

I went a little wide eyed as he started to phase behind me and I quickly clapped my hands over my eyes in case his human form would end up naked in front of me before he was completely wolf. When I heard him growling and snarling much more impressively, I knew he'd phased so I uncovered my eyes. I tried to see around his massive form to find out what was going on, but he cheated and used his tail to hold me in place.

"This is so not a view I'm enjoying" I grumbled, lifting one hand to poke his fuzzy butt

He actually ended up letting out one of his coughing bark laughs for a moment before he ended up growling and snarling again. I could see his fur was all standing on end and I sighed, resigned to the fact that I was going to have no clue what was going on.

"He's not a thing!" I snapped defensively at the silky male voice I could hear somewhere in front of Jonas

When I heard the guy realize Jonas was protecting a human, sounding shocked, I managed to wiggle free of Jonas' tail enough to lean to one side and peer out from around him.

"Vampires!" I squeaked in terror and quickly disappeared behind Jonas again

It had been obvious to me that's what they were. The perfect marble faces had given it away. I thought I'd caught a glimpse of a female behind them for a second. She was human, I could tell, because she looked terrified and only had just a little more color in her frightened face than I did. It made me wonder what the hell she was doing with a bunch of vampires, but some part of my brain said she was probably wondering what I was doing with a werewolf too.

At first I thought it was going to be a phase. Blake and Bren taking such an interest in these human girls. Last night at the party I'd gotten to see just how much they were interested in them and even had a brief glance at one of them being turned - I just couldn't figure out which since the face hadn't been perfectly clear to me. I tried my best not to dwell on the fact that Bren and Blake were breaking official vampire rules and hoped that no one else would find out either. Hopefully with the right amount of time one of them would join our family and the other one would leave and we wouldn't be bothered any more.

I spent the majority of the night with Sophia and only parted with her because I knew Bren and Blake were in town. (Sophia and I had been wandering around) I was intent on convincing them to go play some basketball with me but when I finally reached them and saw that Bri was with and they were coming out of a jewelry store. I gave a sigh of disapproval, even more so when I saw the expensive necklace around Bri's neck and stood with my arms crossed talking to them.

The mood changed immediately when we caught the scent of something.. strange. I would have expected Blake or Bren to know what it was but Bren looked just as confused as I did and Blake looked worried. I followed closely behind the older two and made sure to keep Bri behind me because I'd noticed that she was following us even though Bren told him not to. A million thoughts were turning in my head as we steadily walked closer to this unknown - threatening smell. I didn't like it and I wished, for one brief moment, that Bren would turn around and make us leave because Bri was with.

I stopped in my tracks and tried to hold Bri back but she skidded past me and clung to Bren's back. I stopped breathing instinctively to try and stop the awful smell but it still drifted up my nose and even worse, I could taste it now. I gagged slightly and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I realized that this big wolf was protecting a human behind it and I let out a loud snort when she seemed to realize what we were and then hid behind it again.

"What is it?" I sniffed the air again and snarled. "And what is it doing in our territory?"

I didn't get to buy presents often. There wasn't much that we needed anymore because we'd practically bought everything that could possibly keep us entertained. We didn't celebrate birthdays, holidays and none of us had a girlfriend before now to spend any money on and even then the chances were high that it would have been another vampire in the first place and she wouldn't have needed anything. It was another perk of having a human girlfriend.. among other things.

After last night, watching Ray sleep, I decided that I was going to 'ditch' her for a few hours and go buy her a present. She had homework that she needed to do and apparently chores that her foster parents wanted done. So her and Mike spent the day doing whatever and I dragged Bri out of her house to help me find something nice to buy Ray. Bren came along too because he'd been at Bri's house with her and he refused to let me have her alone. I didn't know if that was because he was clingy, or because he didn't trust me not to eat her.

I spent a long time in the jewelry store trying to find the perfect present. Bri pointed out a nice diamond bracelet. I loved it so much I bought it right away and kept Bri busy looking at other things enough because Brendan was telling me to keep her occupied so much that he was invading my mind for a change. I had to give him a glare to make him shut up before I ended up with a headache or something. Which I hadn't experienced since I was human.

When we got outside and Gavin found us, I chatted with them all for a little bit and carefully tucked Ray's present into my leather jacket pocket. I caught the scent long before any of the others had but that was because I was always on the look out for a werewolf.. I had run into one back in my early days as a vampire and it nearly killed me. I wasn't up for going through that again. But Bren started to follow the scent curiously and even though everything in my body - every cell and nerve I had - was telling me to go in the other direction. Especially since we had Bri with.

I growled as we stopped and I could see that the werewolf had a human behind it. I pulled my teeth back and snarled and snapped at it myself. I knew that a werewolf wasn't exactly a huge threat to a human because it was mostly human itself, but that didn't mean we were safe. In fact we really weren't because he knew exactly what we were and it wasn't like we had any treaties made her.. and he really didn't belong here. Which pissed me off the most. This was our town.

"Take your human and leave, dog." I growled in warning.

I loved Brendan. He wasn't just someone that I was completely in love with, but also like a best friend too. After we'd gone back to my house last night he had helped to cut and curl my hair a little and I gave him so much grief about knowing how to do all that, that he had rolled around on the bed to face away from me and pretended to sleep for the rest of the night even though I knew he couldn't sleep.. he'd told me before. I thought it was cute though, and had curled up into his back and fallen asleep.

I slept quite heavily too until I felt someone jerking me around in the bed. I thought it was Bren at first until I opened my eyes and saw that this person didn't have the golden whitish blond hair that I'd come to know and love, but dark brown. I nearly flew out of bed until Bren fell off laughing at me and I realized that it was Blake. I agreed to go with him under the condition that he would never scare the crap out of me like that again, then went to take my shower.

Both of the boys seemed anxious for me to get done. Apparently since they weren't human they didn't need to take long, hot showers like I did. So I purposely made it drag out longer, then got dressed. We all piled into Blake's BMW and then headed downtown. I pointed out the best jewelry store that I could find, knowing that Blake wanted whatever present it was to be expensive. While we were in there I thought it was strange that he was keeping me so distracted when he'd already bought the bracelet I picked out and was shocked to find out why when we left.

I huffed and threw a fit but it didn't bother Brendan any because I'd done it all with a sappy smile on my face. I wanted to jump on him and hug him, but Gavin joined us then and well.. that was pretty much the end of my conversation with anyone. Not only was he really into Sophia making that a little awkward because Ray and I didn't really get along with her, but he didn't seem like he wanted us with Bren and Blake. He was really nice to us and all but it was always written all over his face that he didn't approve.

So I leaned against Bren's side and checked out my necklace more closely as the three of them talked. I didn't really realize what was going on when they suddenly smelled the air and took off in the other direction. In fact I was a little freaked out and I wasn't going to stay here by myself when something was bothering Bren so much. It made me feel oddly exposed when he wasn't around so I hurried up and kept close behind them. I couldn't help snickering at Bren when he growled and told me to stick close behind them. Gavin did a good job keeping me behind him after that.

"What's going on?" I asked from behind Gavin's back and when I got a peek over his shoulder I nearly pissed my pants at the oversized dog that was in front of us. I was so use to growling and stuff from the boys that I never thought in a million years that it would have been a dog. My knees shook slightly and I quickly dodged out from behind Gavin and ran straight for Bren. He might have been closer to this thing, but I felt much safer by him than Gavin. I wasn't so sure Gavin wouldn't just throw me out in front of it so it would eat me and I'd be out of his hair then.

"What umm.. what's a giant dog doing here?" I asked Bren quietly and rose an eyebrow when I heard a woman's voice. I stepped to the side - just slightly - so that I could try and see her. She was already hiding from after realizing that these three were vampires, but I could still see her feet between the large dog's legs.

"There's nothing to be afraid of." I told her, though my voice shook. I wasn't entirely sure that the dog had nothing to be afraid of because of how the boys were reacting to it but as far as she was concerned, she was safe. "They won't hurt you."

I squeezed Bren's arm and lowered my voice. I wasn't sure that the dog could hear, but I knew the other three would.

"Does this really have to turn into a fight?" I whispered. "Because I can get out of the way if it came down to that but I don't think she can. What if she got cut?"

I knew that if one of us bled when the boys were angry like this, it was going to take a lot for them not to attack us and while they may not have liked the dog, I didn't think it was smart to be angry like this with us here. I couldn't imagine if I got hurt when Brendan had told me how much he'd wanted to rip my throat out the first few times he'd been around me. I loved him, trusted him with my life, but I wasn't entirely sure how well he'd control himself.

"Please?"

I was still growling at the vampires, both in warning and in fury...until the woman behind them spoke. I blinked and stopped growling in confusion when she told Una they wouldn't hurt her. I took a closer look at the vampires now and saw their golden eyes. When I sniffed deeply, ugh, I could also catch the familiar scent of Sophia coming from the one talking about their territory.

I let out a snort of amusement as Una began back talking the vampires in my defense. Leave it to the tiny witch to be terrified until someone started insulting her friend. I could feel her trying to come out from behind me and I kept blocking her so she couldn't. That other girl might have trusted the vampires, but that didn't mean Una could.

I could hear everything Bri was saying behind me, but I wasn't really paying attention to her. I was too focused on the giant wolf in front of us. However, I started to snap out of it when Bri squeezed my arm and started to talk about what would happen if the girl got cut during a fight.

I realized I was bent half way into hunt mode already and straightened up, also realizing the dog had stopped growling and was looking at us strangely. I forced myself to let go of the blood lust I could feel building.

"Bri's right" I said under my breath to the others "If one of the girls get hurt, we might not be able to stop ourselves"

I blinked and let out an amused chuckle as the human got fiesty with both us and the dog. She didn't seem terrified of us anymore now that we'd insulted her friend and she'd realized we didn't feed on humans. Though, after she talked about what had happened to her village, I could understand why her and her mutt had reacted the way they had at first.

"No..we don't have to fight. We don't eat people" I snickered and then motioned to the wolf "So, that dog's a werewolf? I've never seen one before." I admitted "If he turns human again, we can speak like civilized people"

Now it was my turn to try and play the peace keeper. With me being the oldest in our little 'family', it sort of made me the unofficial leader. So while Gavin and Blake might really want to tear the beast apart, they'd follow my lead because they knew everything I did was usually in the best interest of our family.

I leaned over a little again so I could glare at the vampires. I didn't like the way they kept calling my friend 'it'.

"He is Jonas and we were shopping til he caught your scent and moved to protect me" I snapped slightly "It's not like we knew this place was infested" I snorted

Normally, I was a lot more charming than this; but I was feeling defensive of my protective friend. Not to mention my dislike of vampires since they'd killed my parents. I took a moment to look them over better now that Jonas had stopped snarling. I noticed he was eyeing the one that had asked about 'their' territory as if he recognized something. I looked harder and realized their eyes were not red like the ones who had attacked our village.

"Hey..wait...your eyes aren't red" I frowned in confusion "not like the ones that attacked Raventree Hollow.."

I tried to remember something Aiden and Jonas had said to me about a brown eyed vampire that had moved into Raventree Hollow recently..Sophia I think. That, combined with the girl telling me that I had nothing to be afraid of made me think they were the same.

"Are...are you..animal eaters like that Sophia person?" I sounded a little more hopeful than I'd meant to "You know..the vegetarian" I couldn't help giggle "vampire that the werewolves made the treaty with?"

I blinked and scowled at the vampire that told the 'dog' to take 'his human' and go.

"First of all, he's not a dog. He's a werewolf. Secondly, fangboy, I belong to no one. Jonas is my friend and he's just protecting me because some of your red eyed buddies killed a bunch of people in our village two years ago. So he's a little protective..just like you three are protecting her" I grunted and motioned with my hand toward the girl hiding behind the blond

I felt kind of bad for her. She looked terrified and confused behind the blond vampire. I couldn't hear her, so I thought she was afraid of Jonas. I didn't realize she was afraid I'd get hurt.

"Don't be scared" I tried to reassure her "Jonas would never hurt you"

I pushed Jonas' ass a little trying to get out from behind him. He wiggled his butt and pinned me against the wall again which made me laugh even though I slapped him...which hurt my hand.

"Ow...hard ass" I grumbled at him

I tried to look at the girl again "Werewolves were born to protect humans from vampires basically. They'd never turn on a human" I said reassuringly again.

I shoved at Jonas in vain "Dude, get your butt out of my face. You're scaring the girl and from back here, I can see why the vampires say you stink" I grunted

Jonas gave one of his coughing bark laughs again but let me out from behind him. I stepped to his side now, but stuck close to him, one hand in his fur just in case.

"So..if you guys don't eat humans, then we really shouldn't have a problem here" I told the vampires, trying to play peace keeper now

It seemed as if us girls were the only ones trying to be reasonable. But then, the blond vampire was agreeing with us.

"See?" I told Jonas, nudging him "He is willing to be reasonable. Phase back and play nice and maybe all of us can get of this none the worse for wear"

I dug into my shoulder bag and pulled out a pair of jeans for him that I'd brought just in case he accidently phased and messed up his clothes. It was a bad habit of his and I wasn't fond of seeing him naked. He took the jeans in his massive mouth carefully and then went behind a pile of crates. I felt insanely vulnerable while he phased and got dressed, so I stood there eying the vampires warily and praying the human girl had been right.

I growled again when the girl snapped at us. I couldn't help myself, this was my family and whatever this thing was, I wasn't going to let anything happen to my brothers. If it wasn't for the fact that Bren hadn't given the order to attack, I would have already been on this thing. I hated the stench of it.

"If you think it's so infested then leave." I snapped back at her. "No one asked you to stay here. In fact we don't want you here."

She was fiesty sure and I normally loved that but I not only knew that she was human but she smelled like her dog friend now too. It really wasn't an attractive scent. She clearly wasn't happy here and I thought the best thing for her to do would be to leave. I was caught off guard when she mentioned Sophia's name though, and I stopped to blink at her.

"You know Sophia?"

"It's not a dog, it's a werewolf." I said quietly to Bri, but the girl said it faster than me. The girl's snippy attitude didn't bother me at all, I had no reason to be upset with her since she was only sticking up for her friend. I listened quietly as everyone talked and growled slightly in Bren's direction. I spoke quietly to him again.

"You're overly trusting, Bren." I snapped in a growl. "You have no idea what a werewolf can do to you. Civilized or not, you're better off asking them to leave."

Bren might have been older, but he clearly hadn't come across a werewolf before and didn't seem to know that the werewolf was our natural enemy.. and the one thing that could kill us faster than we could blink. I turned and snarled at the girl that was still being snippy but instead of me blowing it off it angered me a little. I didn't like how she thought she could come here and speak to us like this.

"He's a dog." I growled. "And don't you ever lump us in with a bunch of murderers. You so obviously have no idea what's going on here."

I turned my back to them and headed over to Bri, who was still standing behind Bren. I blocked her from view and whispered angrily to Bren.

"I don't approve of this at all." I snarled at him. "And to involve Bri in it!" I scoffed.

"I really don't want to be dinner." I squeaked quietly behind Bren and took hold of his shirt so that I could hold onto it. I did too, like I was clinging to it for dear life. I felt much safer so long as Brendan was hiding me from sight.

I shook a little when the woman started to have a fit about some of the things that the boys were saying. I sighed loudly, but from annoyance. But unlike her, I wasn't going to stoop as low as she did but I did speak up from being Bren.

"There's no reason to be rude.. obviously this is a vampire.. werewolf.. thing so we should stay out of it."

I didn't like the 'infestation' thing and by the looks of it neither did Gavin. I was glad he said something to it so that I didn't have to.

"Stop it!" I blinked around at all of them and then moved by Blake when he came over to my side and talked to Bren. I was finally out from behind Bren and while I felt exposed because I could be seen this time, it was something that needed to be done.

"First of all that was incredibly rude." I said to the girl. "Talking to my friends like that because you came into their territory.. they're protecting it, just like your friend would do in his town. And secondly? I'm not afraid of your friend.. I'm afraid that one of us are going to get hurt and my friends won't be able to stop themselves."

"And YOU!!" I reached over and pushed Blake mostly in a joking way even though it did no good because he didn't budge an inch. "He's not putting me in anything. You know Bren wouldn't really be here if he thought I'd get hurt."

I stepped out from behind the crates wearing the jeans Una'd given me and growled at the guy who was telling Una to leave.

"We've been around here longer than you have. So why don't you leave?"

I took a step toward him, but stoped and sighed when Una put her hand on my arm. I checked myself, trembling a little as I got my anger under control. The girls were right, if we fought there was a chance they could get hurt...plus we were in town.

"Yeah, Sophia lives in our territory" I shrugged at the guy "She has a treaty with my pack. As long as she doesn't bite a person, we leave her in peace"

"He's not a dog, he's a werewolf. You said so yourself" I told the dark haired guy, though I didn't sound snippy this time..more wounded "And I stopped lumping you in with murderers after I realized you had gold eyes" I pointed out "but you're still lumping Jonas in with dogs. Don't be hypocritical" I frowned

I sighed and then rubbed the back of my neck "Two years ago, a group of vampires came into our town and killed a lot of people..including my parents" I explained "So you might can see why I freaked at first. I didn't know there were good vampires until Sophia moved into Raventree and the werewolves told me about her so that I wouldn't freak when I saw her. Sorry if I offended you, but you've been just as bad as me about making lumped judgments. You automatically assumed Jonas is dangerous just because he's a werewolf. He's not. He's only dangerous to the vampires that drink human blood. Besides.." I pouted slightly at the guy "you called me his human."

I pulled a face, obviously I'd been offended by that "I'm no one's property. Least of all a smelly werewolf's"

I snickered and patted Jonas' arm "No offense..but you do smell kinda bad"

I looked at the girl as she went off on me "What can I say?" I shrugged "I don't like people insulting my friends any more than you but Jonas wasn't in a position to speak for himself. As for this being their territory, it's not like we knew. They obviously haven't been here that long because they weren't here two years ago. I mean..it's not like vampires and werewolves send memos to each other saying 'hey, we've moved in, stay out'.." I stroked my chin thoughtfully "Although..that could actually be a pretty good idea"

I tried to smile "Might help keep situations like this from cropping up"

I blinked when the blond vampire suddenly spoke up for me. It made me blush a little because I didn't feel like I'd deserved it.

I sighed a little as the bickering continued. Una was sort of trying to apologize..or at least explain why she'd been so snippy. I could actually understand where she was coming from; but then, I'd always been the more sympathetic out of our little family.

"Look, we all got off on the wrong foot. Responding to hostility with hostility." I said quietly "Bri, she was just defending her friend like you're doing. And she kinda has a point..it's not like there's a sign around town saying vampires live here." I sighed

I finally turned my back on the werewolf and his friend for a moment and turned to face Bri. I put my hands on her cheeks and smiled at her.

"I love that you're so defensive of us, but everyone" I looked especially at the others "needs to just try to stop bickering so this can be resolved peacefully."

I kissed Bri's forehead "And of course. If I thought you were in any real danger, I would have had you out of here before you could blink."

I looked at Blake "I knew the do- erm werewolf- was protecting a human..just like we were being protective. If we're no threat to each other, there's no problem. He doesn't attack vampires like us. We have proof of that because Sophia said she lives in Raventree Hollow..which is where they're from. They let her live in their territory so long as she doesn't hurt people. We don't hurt people, so we're no threat to him and his friend. There's no reason this we can't be civilised about this."

I realised Bri as I said the last bit so that I could turn and face the werewolf too. He was standing beside his friend without making any further advances on us. So, I figured he agreed with me.

I sighed when everyone fought and it slowly dwindled down to just quiet bickering and then it stopped completely. There was an awkward couple of seconds when no one spoke after Brendan was done so I was the first to open my mouth.

"So what happens then?" I asked curiously as I looked at the guy who'd been the werewolf moments ago. "Do you two just go on your way and leave us be? I'm not exactly keen on the idea of having to look over my shoulder all the time when we just got settled in here."

I was at least being honest. I wasn't sure how this stuff worked because until today I didn't even know werewolves existed. I looked over the guy who'd been the werewolf before and rose an eyebrow.

"How does that work anyway? There was a lot more wolf than there is human."

I stared at him for a while longer, contemplating it. If Bren said that it was okay than I followed in line. I didn't have a need to question his sanity like Blake did.

"Technically." I started to say and chuckled. "We've been in this town, living here.. longer. You're from Ravenwood? That's pretty far away. Technically not yours here." I gave him a smug smile, but otherwise wasn't being snobby or anything. I was known for being a bit of a brat anyway. "Wish Sophia was here. Might be weird saying it, but I think she could have made all this easier."

I winced as the girl started talking back like I'd been yelling at her or something. Bren didn't help when he spoke up for her either. I looked like someone had just slapped me across the face. They were making me sound like I was being rude or something when I was simply pointing out a few things.

"Sorry."

I said pathetically and looked down at the ground. I'd just had my feelings hurt, of course, because even Bren had turned on me in his own 'polite' way. I didn't think it was fair that I was getting punished for wanting to stick up for my friends.. and I'd done it politely too. If Brendan wanted to stick up for someone he didn't know over me, then that was fine. I took two large steps away from him, and everyone else, when Bren let go of me.

"I can think of a lot of things your friend would call us too. Dog, bloodsucker, leach.. they're just names we call each other."

I shook my head when the girl said that I was making judgements because I assumed that Jonas was dangerous or that he was going to hurt someone.

"He's not dangerous to you or any other human but he's dangerous for us. Please, understand that."

I gave a little bit of a laugh when she said her friend smelled and he looked offended. I didn't mind in the least that she was protecting her friend, it was when she was talking back to us for things that she didn't understand, that upset me.

When Bren said that enough was enough, basically, I nodded my head to him. If he really didn't want to fight then I wasn't going to, but I did give Bri a sympathetic look as she backed away from all of us. I couldn't blame her for being hurt, but I could understand where Bren was coming from too. May have felt sorry for Bri but I would always take Bren's side. Unless, of course, it came to my Ray.

"We're not exactly very communicative." I chuckled at the girl and then stepped forward to introduce myself and then stopped at the look from her friend. "I'm Blake, this is my brothers Brendan and Gavin and our friend Abrianna. You are..?"

I nodded at the guy who asked what happens now.

"Yeah. That's exactly what happens." I shrugged "You don't feed on people so you have nothing to fear from the pack. Silver Lake isn't exactly part of our territory, but we'd still protect it if there were red-eyes here. We wouldn't just abandon the humans. But, I'll spread the word that you guys are here. Raventree isn't very big, so a lot of us come here for shopping. If the rest of the pack have advanced warning, future misunderstandings can be avoided"

I smiled a little "I'm the alpha male, so they'll leave you alone because they can't disobey me."

I actually chuckled when the guy asked how it worked and pointed out there'd been more wolf than man.

"I'm not exactly sure. We're all pretty big. As humans, there's not a one of us that stands under 6ft 1 even the youngests. As wolves, our size seems more determined by a combination of our human height and our pack rank. I'm alpha, so I'm largest." I shrugged "But most of what I know about werewolves is what Una's told me anyway."

I nodded toward my short friend "I didn't know vampires and werewolves were real until two years ago. Una's a witch, so she knew..and knows..more about all that stuff than I do"

I snickered slightly when the dark haired guy listed off the nicknames we had for each other and Una seemed to think 'leach' was offensive.

"Typical Unsie" I teased her "you're such a devil's advocate"

I tensed when the guy took a step forward, but I forced myself to relax. It was just instinct. I was pretty sure he would have tensed too if I'd taken a step toward them.

"I'm Jonas, the shortie's Uthena, but we all call her Una" I smiled down at her

She was like a baby sister to me.

I felt a stab of sympathy for the girl as she looked a bit dejected. I was sorry I'd let my temper get away from me in the first place now.

"I'm the one that should be saying sorry" I smiled at her "I was the one being incredibly rude..and bitchy" I winked at her in a friendly way "So, I'm sorry. I'm just really defensive of Jonas. After my parents were killed, he and his brother have been all that I've had"

I rose an eyebrow at the dark haired vampire "Leach?! That's awful. I mean..at least the werewolves actually look like giant dogs.. you guys don't look like slimey black squishy things" I shuddered

I shook my head at him "They aren't dangerous to you." I tried to reassure him "Just the vampires that attack humans."

I looked up at Jonas and smacked his arm, then winced and tried to shake the pain out of my hand, when he called me 'the shortie'. "Shuddap, big foot" I snorted "Not all of us can be 6ft 3. Can you imagine how freaky I'd look at that height?"

I decided to be brave and I stepped toward each person, starting with Blake, and shook their hand as he introduced them. I even managed not to wince at how cold their hands were.

"It's nice to meet you, sorry it didn't start off better" I said to each of them

I blinked at Bri's necklace when I got to her though "Ooo, that's pretty" I told her

I reached for it and pressed the tip of my index finger to the stone of the heart and muttered something under my breath.

"There" I smiled at her and leaned to whisper in her ear "Next time you're in a dark place..just say the word glow..say stop to make it go out"

I straightened up and grinned at her before retreating back to Jonas' side

While everyone else was preoccupied with their conversations, I closed the distance between me and Bri. I stroked her cheek and began to talk softly in her ear.

"Don't be sorry, love. You didn't do anything wrong. I just had to admonish everyone, or the guys would have whined that I was playing favorites" I chuckled in her ear "It sucks to be the oldest sometimes"

I brushed my lips against her warm, soft ones in a brief gentle kiss for a moment before turning to face the others again. I held Bri's hand now though.

"Well, as long as you give us your word that your pack won't cause any trouble here in our territory, I suppose there's no harm in you shopping here. But, you wolves have to agree to stay human when in town. We're trying to keep a low profile and not draw attention to supernatural creatures here...and having gigantic wolves running around town would sort of ruin that effect. Don't you think?" I smiled

I watched as Una looked like she was gathering her courage and Jonas looked like he was being forced to eat something disgusting as Una came over to shake all of our hands. I shook her tiny, frail hand carefully with my free hand and chuckled a little. When she got to Gavin, she looked like she might have thought he was attractive but also a hopeless cause. I'd noticed the faintest blush to her cheeks while she shook his hand before she scampered back over to Jonas' side.

"So you and Bren." I snorted. "Alpha males. Go figure."

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and then rose an eyebrow when the human girl stepped forward to shake our hands. I was surprised, to say the least. But I dug my hand back out and shook her warm one. I wasn't usually affected by humans but I had to admit that she was cute and tiny.

"You smell yummy." I growled at her with a chuckle, just attempting to scare or frighten her a little. I had a wicked sense of humor that way but Blake glared at me and I stopped and shrugged sheepishly.

"Sorry." I smiled at her when Bri didn't answer when she apologized. "And you have nothing to be sorry for. You were just doing the same thing we all were.

I nodded to Bren when he came over and whispered in my ear but didn't say anything. Considering I wasn't part of the family, never would be part of the family, he shouldn't have talked to me like I was part of the family. But I loved him enough that I couldn't say any of it.. I couldn't start a fight with him because I really didn't want him angry with me so I just stayed silent. It was better that way.

I returned his kiss and held his hand tightly in mine. Again, I was hurt and all, but I wasn't so hurt that I was going to give up any chance I had to have contact with Bren. So I stroked his cold hard hand with my thumb and watched the tall, werewolf guy as he finally spoke. He wasn't gorgeous in the way that my Brendan was, but he was still stunningly handsome. And tall. I knew if I stood beside him I would have to tilt my head back, probably as far as I could, just to look up at him. That and.. he had no shirt on. It was hard not to stare, my eyes just wouldn't move away from his chest. It made me blush slightly.

"You didn't know?" I asked him, suddenly breaking my silence. "About any of this until you were suddenly a werewolf?"

I blinked and rose an eyebrow as Una came over to me and I watched quietly as she touched my necklace and did something to it. I gave her a soft smile when she whispered what exactly it was and nodded.

"Thanks."

"We have human friends and girlfriends." I said to the tall one honestly. "We wouldn't allow any vampires that prefer humans in here."

I noticed that I'd been holding my breath when Una came over to introduce herself. I took a small breath then and smiled down at her because she smelled rather nice. Not like Ray, not even half as good as my girl, but still nice for a human who'd been hanging out with a werewolf.

"Don't worry about it." I smiled at her and then looked to Jonas again. I still didn't feel perfectly okay being around a werewolf, it just wasn't in our instincts but I was comforted by the fact that I was sure he wasn't either.

"How can you turn into a werewolf without knowing about all this? Didn't someone warn you?"

It reminded me a little of our situation too. While some of us knew about this world before we'd been brought into it, the majority didn't. Like me.

I chuckled to Brendan when he talked about the pack making sure to run around in human form.

"Yeah, I'll make sure only the ones that can control it come shopping. If any of the others need something, we'll send Una. She's too small to make anyone feel uncomfortable" I snickered and grinned down at her

Of course, just as an added precaution I'd make sure to have everyone in the pack hug her before she left..so she wouldn't tempt any vampires that were wandering through or anything.

"That's good to know" I nodded to Blake when he said they wouldn't let harmful vampires in here "How many of you are there here anyway, just so I can tell the pack how many to expect?"

I shrugged when they all seemed surprised that I didn't know anything about werewolves and vampires before I was turned.

"Not many of us did, actually. We thought it was all just superstitious crap until the vampires attacked the town. It was the attack that activated our dormant werewolf genes. Scared the shit out of most of us when we first started changing. We had no idea what was going on. But we figured out some of it and Una filled in the blanks for all the rest"